Outdoor, Fox Business Top Emerging Networks: Beta

1/23/2008 9:09 AM Eastern

By: By Linda Haugsted

Outdoor Channel and Fox Business Network are the top emerging networks that operators most want to carry, while DIY Network and Lifetime Movie Network rank as the leading mid-sized networks, according to the latest study from Beta Research Corp.

Among mid-sized networks, 76% of the executives polled expressed interest in DIY Networks. The rest of the top five: Lifetime Movie Network (75%); Discovery Home (soon to become Planet Green) 71%; Discovery Times Channel, (68%); and History International (65%).

NFL Network was the sixth-place finisher among mid-sized networks category. The subject of a nasty public carriage squabble between cable operators and the sports league, NFL Network received support from 61% of respondents as a network they anticipated launching by the end of 2008.

Where executives at large systems were concerned, NFL Network ranked first among mid-sized networks as the service those operators would like to carry. However, that distinction was achieved with a score of 24% among large systems, classified as having more than 100,000 subscribers.

The study, conducted last October and November, measured the popularity of 22 emerging networks (defined as those passing 1 million to 40 million homes) and 26 mid-sized networks (serving 41 million to 70 million subscribers at the time of the survey).